Okay, I’m adding another reference to the Lorax on my blog. It’s not mine this time, but the Times Union’s Steve Hughes, writing about the New York State Urban Forestry Council in an article published yesterday.
Think of the New York State Urban Forestry Council as The Lorax in the state’s nonprofit world. It speaks for the trees.
The statewide organization is a partnership of public, private, and volunteer organizations and individuals dedicated to healthy urban and community forests in populated areas throughout the state.
It would be hard to overstate the positive impact trees can have on urban and suburban communities. Readers of my blog know how passionate I am about the subject, and people who know me in person understand the depth of my grief at the wanton destruction of older, mature trees throughout my neighborhood and community.
That makes the work of groups like the NYSUFC (and our local arborist co-op, More Trees) vitally important. One of the challenges we face today is that we aren’t forward-thinking enough to remember that it takes a couple of decades for trees to grow. We need to plant trees today in order for the children of today’s children to enjoy them (it’s already too late for today’s children to enjoy them).
I visited my hometown last week for a few days. Many of the trees I remember climbing as a child are gone. That’s not a huge suprise, as it was 30 years ago. But even as I lamented the loss of trees that had sentimental value to me, I was also struck by the fact that there were numberous younger trees growing that had been planted to replace them. Would it have been better to plant them pre-emptively? Sure. But the effort has clearly been made.
That’s emphatically not the case here in Colonie. Despite its continuous designation as a “Tree City USA” by the Arbor Day Foundation, we constantly hear woodchippers and chain saws but see very few saplings in the ground, even in places where they’d have an obvious impact, like surrounding public playgrounds. Maybe it’s time we start working with local organizations, like the NYSUFC. It’s good to see coverage of their work in the local paper.